~ The only global cricket tournament especially developed for university students, helping find the next generation of cricketing talent ~

~ Rajasthan Royals to continue scouting talent from RBCC 2022 ~ 

National, 3^rd March, 2022 (GPN): The 11^th year of the only global cricket tournament for university students, Red Bull Campus Cricket is set to kick off in India across 33 cities with city qualifiers from 28th February to discover and nurture budding cricketers from college campuses. The Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals deepens their association with the energy drink giant Red Bull in India and plans to continue scouting talent from the annual international T20 tournament for college cricket teams – Red Bull Campus Cricket

Red Bull Campus Cricket 2022 city qualifiers will take place from 28^th February to March end across 33 cities in India – Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Jammu, Dharamshala, Dehradun, Jaipur, Delhi, Jaunpur, Meerut and Lucknow in the North; Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Rajkot, Indore, Nagpur, Raipur, Mumbai, Pune and Goa in the West; Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Guwahati in the East; Bangalore, Coimbatore, Mysuru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Madurai, and Vizag in the South. Like last year, RBCC will find the Kerala qualifying team through their association with Kerala College Premier League T20 Championship.

The winning college from each city will then proceed to the zonal/regional finals in April. The top two teams from each zone in RBCC will then compete in the National finals in June first week. The National winner will then represent India in the Red Bull Campus Cricket 2022 World Finals. Past winners from India that have gone on to represent the country at the World Championships are Rizvi College, Mumbai; DAV College, Chandigarh; Swami Shraddhanand College, Delhi and MMC College, Pune.

Last year, The Red Bull Campus Cricket National Finals were held at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on 22nd October 2021 with a jaw dropping match between MMCC Pune and New LJ College Ahmedabad. MMCC College from Pune emerged victorious against New LJ College Ahmedabad by 2 wickets to be crowned the best cricket college university in the country for the fourth time in the competition’s history after emerging victorious in 2016, 2017 and 2018 previously. 

KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Niroshan Dickwella & Chirag Suri are six players who went on to make their names in international cricket for their respective countries by using the Red Bull Campus Cricket platform. Red Bull athlete KL Rahul was the top scorer in the 2013 edition of the competition and credits RBCC for his success at the domestic and international level. Cricketers like Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shahrukh Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Anukul Roy, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur, Karun Nair and Manan Vohra have also reaped the benefits of Red Bull Campus Cricket.

Last year, the inauguration of the first ever Red Bull Campus Cricket Women’s edition was led by Red Bull athlete and star India batsman Smriti Mandhana. The aim of the women’s leg is to boost the increasing participation of young and aspiring women cricketers at the university and grassroots level. 

On 22nd October 2021, PCA Stadium in Mohali witnessed the first ever women’s edition of Red Bull Campus Cricket National Finals between Delhi’s Gargi College and Rizvi College from Mumbai. After a quality contest between bat & ball, it was Rizvi College from Mumbai that created history by beating Gargi College, Delhi by 3 wickets to be crowned the first ever women’s champions of Red Bull Campus Cricket.

This year, the qualifiers of the women’s tournament will be held in 4 cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Ranchi – in April. The winner of the national final will be declared the best women’s college cricket team in India. A few players participating in the women’s championship will also get an amazing opportunity to interact with Smriti Mandhana.Ends